Rosicrucian Writings Online | ||
HierarchyBy Joseph J.
Weed, F.R.C.[From The Rosicrucian Digest Aug.-Sept. 1945] A few preliminary observations are necessary, and probably the most important is a short examination into the nature of God as we see Him. This is a very vast subject, chiefly because the nature of God exists in the mind of man. God is as we see Him. God is so far above and beyond our comprehension that each of our ideas (and each one of us has a different idea of God) falls so short of what God actually is that it has almost no relation to Him at all and exists only in our own brain or imagination. Many thousands of years ago when human beings first began to think, great Teachers came among them and endeavored to explain to them the order of this universe and to interpret to them something of universal truth and the existence of God. Of necessity these Teachers were forced to use words that would fit in with the elementary comprehension of the people to whom They were speaking. Some of these explanations made long ago are still remembered and account for the strange ideas of God that are held by some right down to this day. As time went on, Teachers appeared again and again endeavoring to convey some portion of Their enlightenment to the people of this planet. These Great Souls tried to express the Cosmic truths of which They were conscious. They used words and phrases suited to the intelligence and the experience of the people to whom They were talking. These words were remembered long after the Teachers had gone. They were interpreted literally when the consciousness and understanding of the race had changed and have given rise to the many superstitious opinions about God, which still exist. We Now Know More
About God We are capable now of knowing a great deal more about God than was known 10,000 years ago, or even 2,000 years ago. It is unwise for us to continue to retain the ideas of our forefathers. We should turn our faces from the past and look towards the future. We should become more up to date in all of our thinking. From time immemorial these great Teachers, the Masters of Wisdom, have been regarded as God. The first of these great altruistic Individuals to appear on this planet came here from far-off worlds, forsaking great privileges and possessions in order to help a backward race. Today, however, most of the Masters of Wisdom working on this planet are members of our own race, human beings who have advanced themselves to a point where they now can look with clear eyes on the face of God and see the workings of the laws of life, and live according to these laws. They come among us to help and teach us, and we in our ignorance have called Them gods. However, from Their point of view They are only a short space beyond us, the average of the human race, and the distance between Them and God is still infinite. One of the earliest Teachers to come to this earth was Osiris, who, if his name means anything, probably came from a planet of the sun Sirius. From time beyond memory Sirius has been called "The Dog Star." I wonder why? Osiris has long been regarded as God by millions of people, but He is not. Then, there was Zoroaster, regarded by millions as God; and there is Jesus the Christ to whom we look as our Master, and He is regarded as God by millions of people throughout the world. We all have within us a "spark of the Divine" and because of this we may be regarded as sons of God, particularly when this Divine inner presence is the guiding principle of our entire lives. But even when this is so, it does not entitle us to be regarded as the one and only God, the Creator of the universe in Whom we all live and move and have our being. We have been taught that our conception of God will change and our idea of God will alter as we advance in our studies. As our consciousness expands, our ideas about the Deity become very much changed. The way the lesson expresses itself is cryptic--"God will change." Many have wondered about this. In the course of history many individuals have been regarded as God, most of them far lower in the scale than the Masters of Wisdom. Some of the African tribes have regarded their medicine men as being gods. Most primitive peoples were at some time or other led into a degenerate conception of God when their own priesthood preyed upon their credulity and superstition to lead them to a belief that there were many gods, all of whom had to be placated. The more gods the more offerings and the more money. Even animals have been looked upon as gods. Some substances have been deified by our less enlightened brothers, and we know that in recent years aviators who have landed in the jungles have been worshipped as gods by the savages there. Introducing The
Masters But our primary consideration now is to look at that assembly of great human Intelligences which we call the Hierarchy of Masters. There is a limited number of these great Beings on earth at any one time. The reason for this is that Their abilities are needed, and, as rapidly as a new human develops to a point of adeptship and mastership and takes his place in this sanctified group, Another further on is relieved for higher work. Some of these Masters are known by name. There are the Masters A. and C. R.; Master H. and Master S.; and the instructors of Madame Blavatsky, the Masters K. H. and M., and their devoted associate the Master D. K.; and the Venetian Master and the Master R.; and the Master Jesus, of course; and the Master J., who is one of the oldest living humans on the earth today. He is reputed to be far wiser than any other living being on this planet. He has made his special work the study of astrological influences on the body and on the emotions and on the mind. He is as sensitive to astrological changes, and, for example, to the incoming rays of Uranus, as I am to the rays of the candlelight before me. There are many other Masters. We are told that One is assigned to work in the The Hierarchy in
Service To the etheric sight of Masters, the air of the earth at sea level is not clear as we see it. To their higher vision it appears almost molasses-like, a torpid sticky substance through which it is very difficult to move, or to send and receive messages and energy. Much of this is due to the aura of humanity. It is the result of our very low-grade thinking and our low-grade emotional actions and reactions. Each of us is a veritable broadcasting station. In most cases we radiate dark things instead of bright shining things, and this contributes to the vast morass which is so uncomfortable for members of the Hierarchy to enter. The great Master P., recognizing this problem, set for Himself the task of correcting it. For this purpose it was necessary to bring in energies and forces from outside the earth's sphere. The amount of effort He had to put forth is inconceivable, but now He is very close to the accomplishment of His mission; and when He succeeds, much of the murkiness, which has a lowering effect on our emotional life and clouds up our thinking, will be removed. There is great hope for the future, and this is due to the untiring efforts of this great Master. The Masters work not at all for themselves but in complete unselfishness, and their work is colossal. We can help Them if we conscientiously endeavor to raise our own hearts and our own minds to meet the incoming vibrations from our own sun and from the far-off worlds. Raise your aspirations to higher things. Gaze at the sky and stars at night and try to feel yourself ascending to them, thus raising your thoughts and consciousness. In recent years a great interest has developed in the work of the Hierarchy. Many people believe that the only purpose of these Masters is to teach. But this is only a small portion of Their work. They are responsible for the transmitting and the stepping down of Cosmic energy. We live because of incoming energy, most of it from the sun. Much of this energy is of such a high rate of vibration when it reaches this planet that it would pass right through us without any effect whatever unless someone steps it down so that our undeveloped centers can grasp it. The Masters act as transformers for this Cosmic energy and so They shed light and life. Light is the result of the crossing of two harmonious rays. When two such rays meet and intersect each other, a spark of light is created. A developed inner eye will see the spark when two harmonious thoughts meet. We have the saying "to get the spark of an idea." When two harmonious people meet, it causes a spark which both of them are conscious of. When this type of meeting makes a great flare, we call it love. These great Masters shed light, because They are constantly attracting to Themselves rays and energies which meet harmoniously in Their beings. To the inner eye, They are as scintillating flames of brilliant and beautiful colors. They also shed life on the world. Life is more involved than light. It is on the same level of understanding but a more involved process. The Masters nourish life in many ways, and They have in the past used the great religions as reservoirs of energy to nourish people in the spiritual sense--but the formal religions of today will be regarded in the world of tomorrow as crystallized forms which have served their purpose. The Masters send out original thoughts. Every great invention, every original musical composition, every wonderful new idea existed first in the mind of One of the Masters before being passed on to human levels. Almost no human being of our level--which is to say, the average of humanity--can tap the Cosmic reservoir direct for ideas. We get our ideas from the mental level, whence they are precipitated by the Masters. When we attune ourselves our contact is in most cases with the mental level, and we there pick up the concretized idea, an idea clothed in a mental garment sufficiently solid for our mind to grasp and pick it up. When we attempt to contact the Cosmic, we most frequently come in contact with our inner self, the Master within, and this is right. It means that we draw for guidance upon our own past experiences, and we attune with others on the same level as ourselves and draw upon their knowledge and experience. The Masters also have special pupils and disciples to whom They give instruction, guidance, and assistance. They also construct thought forms in order to influence the development of certain complicated elements in the world structure, such as, national tendencies, racial ideas, and so forth. The work They do and the ceaseless energy They expend would put any human being to shame. The Masters also have the responsibility of teaching those intelligences whose development parallels the human--the Devas, for example. They work, too, in an intermediate world where our human egos dwell between incarnations, the world of the so-called dead. The events of the physical world come also under Their direct observation. Some Masters are assigned to the development of certain countries, some to certain races, and it is Their work to see that the peoples and the countries develop according to their Karmic patterns. This requires a very delicate touch. They guide, correct, strengthen the good and weaken the evil, but they are forbidden to interfere in human decisions. The human being must make up his own mind. The gift of free will may not be restricted, not even by Masters. Our earth is something of a living thing, too. It has a certain path to follow and a certain balance to keep. The Masters have the responsibility of maintaining that balance as nearly perfect as possible. For example, they keep the temperature within certain bounds so that human life may not be extinguished, as it certainly would should the temperature average 140 degrees instead of 60. Training for the
Hierarchy There are certain organizations that exist as graded schools or primary grades for human beings in preparation for the work of the Hierarchy. All of us, in this training, advance according to the amount of intelligent effort we put forth in widening our consciousness. Because of the knowledge that has been given us, we have a very great responsibility; namely, the duty of developing ourselves and guiding our lives in accordance with our understanding. We cannot sit and idly allow ourselves to drift. We must put forth our very best effort. Energy must be seized upon and put to use, in order to develop to the full the talents bestowed upon us. | ||
| Section Index | Home Page | |
| Copyright © 2007 Aswins Rabaq. All Rights Reserved. | ||